Mechanic info please

[Susie Hamilton]

My mail truck has a problem. I wrote it up before I went on vacation 2 weeks ago. I went in to work today to check out stuff. I talked to another carrier who has a new truck like mine and he has the same problem. When in drive, while stopped at a traffic light or on curbside delivery, the oil gauge bottoms out and the oil light comes on. The vehicle maintenance people say they know it is a problem with these trucks and will wait for the motor to go out and then replace them. My question is what to expect when the motor goes out? Will it explode or just stop? What am I looking forward to? Thanks.

[webservant]

A motor with low oil pressure is due to become siezed. What that means is that amount of friction with the inner workings of the motor will get so high that

A. The parts will literally melt and come apart.
B. The pistons will swell and get stuck in the sleeve for the pistons.

Either way this is what will happen, the failure of either above will break something because of coming to such an abrupt stop. That will usually create a clank noise. Second oil may come out of the engine somewhere as often times the piece or the wall of engine cracks open to take the impact of piece. Third the engine will come to stop and you will not be able to crank it over (nor should try). Since the failure happens when you are at an idle, the chances of loud clanking noises or parts flying out of the engine is extremely low. If the engine had a failure at high running speeds this is when there is extreme noise and potential engine parts flying through the walls of the engine. It is sad that they don't want to fix the problem and would rather change the whole engine. Hope this helps.